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With Billie
From Julia Blackburn, an author whose ability to conjure lives from other times and places is so vivid that one suspects she sees ghosts, here is a portrait of a woman whose voice continues to haunt anyone who hears it.
Billie Holiday’s life is inseparable from an account of her troubles, her addictions, her arrests, and the scandals that would repeatedly put her name in th...more
Billie Holiday’s life is inseparable from an account of her troubles, her addictions, her arrests, and the scandals that would repeatedly put her name in th...more
Hardcover, 368 pages
Published
April 19th 2005
by Pantheon
(first published 2005)
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Wonderful read about a tragic woman. Julia uses interviews, testimonials, public records, transcripts and recordings from many people who knew Billie Holiday over her lifetime. She allows peoples recollections to speak for themselves and doesn't try to sift through their memories for them, in order to get "just the facts." It allows the reader to draw their own conclusions about this tragic life. I came away thinking that as much as I love the voice, I will never understand what dr...more
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This is a great book about Billie Holiday told mostly through personal interviews conducted in the early '70s by those who were close to her. It is interesting to see where the contradictions and parallels lie in the telling. The reader gets a sense of Harlem in the '30's with it's flop houses, reefer-filled rooms, the music joints, one after the other, back when marijuana was a legal commodity. Oh to have known Billie then! Consistently described as kind-hearted to her friends with a pencha...more
With Billie is a biography of Billie Holiday in the oral tradition of biographies-in-the-round: all the major players in her life speak, sometimes about the same incident or concert, to that the reader gets a really full picture. And what a picture it is: a woman who lived a complex and turbulent life - almost as if whe were a high-wire act and not a brilliant singer. Why the fall didn't happen sooner is a testament to her strength and talent. Toni Morrison says of this book: "Nowhere else ...more
If you are at all a fan of Billie Holiday, then you will want to read this book. It is not your average biography; the author presents basic facts in a timeline up front, then proceeds to tell Billie Holiday's story through the words of those people who worked with her or knew her in other ways throughout her life. Most of the interviews were actually done in the 1970s by another person, who was going to write a book based on these interviews, but who committed suicide before the book went to pr...more
Basically a biography of Billie Holiday, but with an interesting structure. Someone had gone and done all these interviews with people who knew Holiday, but couldn't sell the idea of a book to a publisher. This author takes these interviews and weaves them into this book. The structure is more or less one interview per chapter. Which gives us lots of chapters, and different perspectives on some of the same events of Billie's life. It also leaves lots of holes (which is OK), and some doubt a...more
what i like best about this book is how it is set up.
this one woman initially was researching billie holiday's life thru talking with many people who knew her. and she tape recorded each interview and made notes and had these different documents. but eventually she committed suicide (weird) and this other woman picked up her work and finished the book.
the way it is set up is basically each chapter different stories that different people in her life tell. i like the story telling wa...more
this one woman initially was researching billie holiday's life thru talking with many people who knew her. and she tape recorded each interview and made notes and had these different documents. but eventually she committed suicide (weird) and this other woman picked up her work and finished the book.
the way it is set up is basically each chapter different stories that different people in her life tell. i like the story telling wa...more
For anyone who has read Lady Sings the Blues this book is a must read it is written by accounts of what people in her life remember of her not only as a performer but as a human being.
Freaky. The author found audio tapes from another would-be author who did the research in 1971 to write a book about Billie Holiday. She transcribed the tapes of all these people, mainly other musicians, who are now dead. Noted is that the stories don't always match up and a lot has been told about Billie Holiday that may or may not be true. She mostly lets she different versions all be told with the idea that overall themes will emerge. She does say, however, that "Lady Sings the Blues"...more
Very good book showing point of view of people who had met Billie - girls she went to school with, musicians, family.
I'm loving this book. It's written in such an easy style, makes you sink into the era with ease.
Finally let Billie go, I read the last few chapters at a snail's pace because I just didn't want it to end. Highly recommend this book if you're NOT into sensationalized tell-it-all biographies, but rather enjoy the insights the people on the perimeter can give you. Love the style of writing, the honesty with which stories were related and all the references given for further reading mate...more
Finally let Billie go, I read the last few chapters at a snail's pace because I just didn't want it to end. Highly recommend this book if you're NOT into sensationalized tell-it-all biographies, but rather enjoy the insights the people on the perimeter can give you. Love the style of writing, the honesty with which stories were related and all the references given for further reading mate...more
there are 23498237495872 biographies of billie holiday and although this is the only one i've read, i think it's the best. blackburn interviews people who knew billie - her lovers, her managers, her family, other musicians, and lets us take from them what we will. reading the interveiws in the slang and dialect that surrounded billie's life and career gave the stories a genuine, tangible feel, unlike the somehwhat sterile tone that most biographies have.
I couldn't put this book down. I love the way it is set up and how every chapter explains a piece of her life from different prospectives and people who worked with her,her lovers, family and friends. Julia Blackburn does a wonderful job.
A boring, disorganized book. I was listening to Billie Holiday a lot and realized I didn't know too much about her. After reading this book, I still didn't know that much.
Really nothing for Billie-beginners.
Read my review here: http://allthatglistensisnotold.blogspot....
Read my review here: http://allthatglistensisnotold.blogspot....
This book gave a great look into the life of Billie Holiday and all the trials she had gone through.
I became obsessed with Billie Holiday after this book.
Lindsay
marked it as to-read
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Julia Blackburn is the author of several other works of nonfiction, including Charles Waterton and The Emperor’s Last Island, and of two novels, The Book of Color and The Leper’s Companions, both of which were short-listed for the Orange Prize. Her most recent book, Old Man Goya, was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Blackburn lives in England and Italy.
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